Bounce Rate is defined as the percentage of visitors that leave a webpage without taking an action, such as clicking on a link, filling out a form, or making a purchase.
Bounce Rate is important for three main reasons:
- Someone that bounces from your site (obviously) didn’t convert. So when you stop a visitor from bouncing, you can also increase your conversion rate.
- Bounce Rate may be used as a Google Ranking Factor. In fact, one industry study found that Bounce Rate was closely correlated to first-page Google rankings.
- A high Bounce Rate lets you know that your site (or specific pages on your site) has issues with content, user experience, page layout or copywriting.
What’s The “Average” Bounce Rate?
According to a report on GoRocketFuel.com, the average Bounce Rate range is between 41 and 51%.
However, a “normal” Bounce Rate depends a lot on your industry and where you’re traffic comes from.
Bounce Rate vs. Exit Rate
Exit Rate is similar to Bounce Rate, with one major difference:
Bounce Rate is the percentage of people that land on a page and leave.
Exit Rate is the percentage of people that leave a specific page (even if they didn’t initially land on that page).
For example, let’s say someone lands on Page A from your site. And they hit their browser’s back button a few seconds later.
Why Do People Bounce?
Before we get into the specific steps to reduce your Bounce Rate, it’s important to understand the most common reasons that people bounce.
Page Didn’t Meet Expectations: For example, let’s say you’re looking for a new blender. So you Google “buy blenders free shipping”.
Bad UX: Yes, your site should look good. But your site also needs to be super easy to use. And the easier it is for people to read and navigate around your website, the lower your Bounce Rate will generally be.
Page Gives Users What They’re Looking For: That’s right. Not all bounces are “bad”. In fact, a bounce can be a sign that your page gave someone exactly what they wanted.
For example, let’s say you’re looking for a new baked eggplant recipe.
How to Improve Your Bounce Rate
1. Embed YouTube Videos On Your Page
Video hosting company Wistia found that adding videos to their pages more than doubled their average time on page.
We’ve also noticed that embedding videos leads to a lower Bounce Rate and higher time on page.
In fact, we recently analyzed the difference in Bounce Rate for pages with and without an embedded video.
And the data shows that pages with video had a significantly lower (11%) Bounce Rate compared to pages without a video.
Also, keep in mind that these videos don’t necessarily need to be your videos.
You can embed ANY video from YouTube that makes sense for your page.
2. Sprinkle In Bucket Brigades
Bucket Brigades are one of the best ways to improve your Bounce Rate on landing pages and blog posts.
Here’s how it works:
First, find a section of your page that’s not super compelling.
(I call these sections “Dead Zones”)
Pretty much every page on the internet has these little “dead zones” where users get bored and click away.
And when you add a handful of Bucket Brigades to your content, you keep people reading your page.
(Which can lower your Bounce Rate significantly).
Here are a few more examples of Bucket Brigades that you can try out:
Check this out:
Question is:
With that…
That made me think:
And this stat backs this up:
Quick story…
3. Loading Speed
A Google analysis of 11 million landing pages found that slow loading speed correlated with higher Bounce Rates.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise. After all, people online are SUPER impatient.
With that, here are some ways you can speed things up.
Your first step is to gather benchmarks of how you’re doing in terms of speed.
I recommend Google’s free and useful PageSpeed Insights tool.
Now that you have a benchmark score, and tips on how to improve, follow these best practices for speeding up your site’s loading speed:
- Compress Images: Images are one of the main reasons that pages load slowly. That’s not to say you should start stripping out images left and right. They serve a purpose. Instead, use an image compression tool (we use Kraken Image Optimizer) to dramatically reduce our image size.
- Use a Fast Hosting Provider: Your host can make or break your site’s loading speed. So if you’re still on a cheap $5/month plan, considering leveling up to a legit host.
- Remove Unused Plugins and Scripts: Use a tool like WebPageTest to get a list of resources that slow down your page.
4. Use The PPT Introduction Template
Lots of people decide to leave or stay on your page based on what they see “above the fold”.
This is why it’s SUPER important to grab someone’s attention as soon as they land on your site.
And one of the best ways to do that?
Write an intro that makes someone want to keep reading.
Personally, I find myself using something called “The PPT Template” more and more. Our internal data shows that it’s great for reducing Bounce Rate. And it’s super straightforward to implement.
5. Make Your Content Super Easy to Read
Or as I like to say:
Hard to read = won’t read.
So if your content looks like this, your Bounce Rate is going to be through the roof.